


Potion Predicaments

by ghostqueennotmean



Category: Original Work
Genre: (but only once in passing), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Flowers, Hanahaki Disease, Mild Blood, Misgendering, Nonbinary Character, Other, Secret Crush, Spells & Enchantments, Time Travel, Witchcraft, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:14:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28094478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostqueennotmean/pseuds/ghostqueennotmean
Summary: Reese will admit that they aren't the most coordinated person. They'd stumbled their way through life––tripping into figuring out they were non-binary at age 11, tripping into learning of their particular skill with magic, and tripping their way through a potion that they'd inevitably messed up, sending them from New York City in the year of 2019 to the middle of the medieval countryside in god knows what year. Granted, it wasn't all bad! They'd made a friend a the castle they'd ended up working at, a girl named Cecily who had thrown herself headfirst into helping Reese fix their predicament.Still, where could she be getting all those lilacs?...
Relationships: Original Character & Original Character, Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Potion Predicaments

**Author's Note:**

> This is a piece that I wrote for [Secretum Hortus,](https://gummizines.itch.io/secretum-hortus) an original Hanahaki zine!! It's free to download, so please do check it out, as all the artists, writers, and merch artists made beautiful pieces for it!

“Reese,” a voice called. Reese hummed.  _ “Reese!!”  _

“I’m right here!!” They called back, hearing footsteps come running their direction. Reese turned around in time to see Cecily running down the hall, skirts swishing around her as her thick-soled shoes smacked against the stone of the floors. Reese smiled at her warmly. “Good afternoon.”

“Reese!” She gasped, coming to a clumsy stop before them. The dull green of her skirts smacked Reese’s shins, surprisingly heavy for just fabric. “Reese, the king’s advisor wishes to see you immediately, you need to go!!”

“Oh, shoot– thank you, Cecily!! I’ll be right back!!” The girl waved back at them weakly as they stumbled past, wheezing in her attempts to catch her breath. Reese waved back before picking up speed and darting around the corner, muttering apologies in the general directions of anyone else who happened to be sharing the hallways with them. The king’s advisor was someone who was not to be pissed off, especially in Reese’s case––at least, not if Reese wanted to go home at the end of this.

See, Reese had a special skill of tripping through life with the grace of a three year old ballerina attempting to do one of those fancy jumps. They’d stumbled their way into discovering they were nonbinary, they’d stumbled even further and found they had a particular affinity with magic, and they’d stumbled their way through a spell that had accidentally transported them from New York City in the year of 2019 to somewhere in medieval Europe, where they were now presenting as their birth gender out of necessity and frantically trying to stay in the good graces of most of the people around them so that they could reverse-engineer their mistake and get back to their proper time period. Which meant meeting with that advisor  _ right this minute _ so that they could slip away into their little hidden corner of the castle and start brewing another attempt. Cecily was a great help in that aspect––Reese needed some  _ ungodly  _ amounts of lilac for this potion-spell hybrid, and Cecily had this strange ability to find them. She’d been getting better and better at it, actually, and Reese wondered if she had a bit of green magic in her helping her out. 

“Reese?” A voice jolted them out of their musings. They snapped to attention, skidding to a stop.

“Yes, sir?”

“The advisor wishes to see you.” The guard regarded them. “Shall I tell him that you are here?” Reese nodded, gulping.

“Yes, sir, thank you.” The guard gave them a stiff nod back, turning to enter the double doors behind him.

“My Lord, he’s here.”

“Tell him to come in,” The advisor called. The guard shot Reese a look, and they stumbled through the door to face their judge.

  
  


“Cecily, I’m back!!” They strolled back into their workshop. In their hands, they held a cloth with a hunk of cheese wrapped within– one of Cecily’s favourite foods. It only felt right to thank her after all she’d done for them––keeping the fact that they were from a different time a secret, helping them find the quieter corners they could consider as workshops, even just  _ respecting pronouns _ (though she did occasionally have her slips, but that was easily forgiven when Reese saw how instantly horrified she was with herself). Besides, they knew that Cecily had been running herself raw doing three times her allotted work to help others squeak by. She deserved a break.

“Cecily?” They repeated. Reese couldn’t raise their voice too much due to risk of being heard by any passersby, but Cecily was normally listening intently enough to hear them. Taking a few more hesitant steps forwards, Reese scanned the room. The servant was nowhere to be seen, and they hummed as they set the cheese down in a little cubby in the wall. That was weird. She never liked to leave the space unattended when she knew Reese would be right back. She only would’ve left if she had something really pressing to attend to––which, knowing the workload around the castle nowadays, she very well might have. With a frown, they stepped further into their corner. Well, they figured they might as well get back to work until they were needed again…

Something snapped under the sole of their shoe, and Reese looked down to discover purple petals lying pathetically under their foot. Slowly lifting it, sure enough, there was the crushed stem of a lilac with petals splayed around it lying on the ground, the perfect picture of a botanical murder scene. They raised a brow. Cecily had definitely been in the room before Reese had arrived, but leaving flowers on the ground was completely unlike her. She knew exactly how important the blossoms were to them, and how every single one counted. Their eyes looked a few feet further, finding even more twigs and leaves strewn on the floor. It almost looked like whoever was dropping these barely noticed, or as if they were trying to stop the fallout. 

In short, suspicious. 

With quiet feet, Reese crept forwards. The trail was unsteady, but led deeper into the workshop than anyone had any right to be going. Their jaw was clenching tighter by the moment. They’d made it another three feet before they noticed that some of the things on their table were knocked over, and then another two before the lilac stems started getting more frequent. What was once mainly a few flowers every five feet or so was now becoming whole stems that formed a dotted line, stained with dark red tints of blood. Reese took a deep breath, picking up the pace. Whatever was going on was going to end, and they didn’t care if it took exposing themselves as a witch to force it. 

A rough sound was coming from a corner, obviously muffled but still painfully clear. It sounded agonizing, growing worse with every choked splutter. As they listened in horror, a few moments passed before the wet coughs were interrupted by a sob.

_ Cecily. _

Without thinking, Reese was racing around the corner, eyes wide and fist clenched. Petals scattered with their movements, forming storm clouds that hung low to the floor and dropped the corrupted blossoms like bloody rain, and as Reese’s eyes shot to the alcove to their right––

There was Cecily, two hands over her mouth and shoulders shaking. Her skirt was two shades darker from her tears, and even from this awkward position, Reese could see the terrible red seeping down her hands and dripping from her elbows. In an instant, Reese was on their knees beside her, large hands roughly wiping salt from her face. Their mouth was moving before they realized.

“Cecily, tell me what happened.” The girl shook her head, dull brown hair sticking to her neck where it had come out of her wilting bun. Reese’s mouth formed an even tighter line. “Cecily, I  _ need you to–” _

There was a horrific sound, something that might’ve been a gag or a cough or a sneeze, and Cecily’s eyes shot wide. Her hands slipped from her mouth, and Reese watched in abject horror as an entire lilac stem emerged from behind her tongue. The force of the cough pushed the blossoms out far enough for the girl to seize the stem and help the flowers in the rest of their exit. Reese felt like they’d just been sucker-punched. It felt like all the pieces had fallen into place as they gazed at the botanical carnage surrounding them both before turning back and noticing the paleness of Cecily’s face (she’d always been terrible with blood). Reese’s throat felt dry as they watched her swallow, a million questions flying through their mind.  _ Why, where, how... _

“...who?” They finally managed. Hanahaki could be fixed, right? It was possible. They just needed to figure out who it was, and everything would be solved. Cecily’s eyes stayed focused on the ground. Reese gently prodded her again, knowing she was just barely conscious. “Cecily,  _ please, _ we can fix this. Who?” 

Cecily’s chest shook as she inhaled. As they watched, helpless, she raised her sweat-covered face to give them a pained look.

_ “You,” _ she rasped out, and Reese choked as she fainted directly into their lap.

They were left holding her, surrounded by flowers, heart heavy in their chest.

The air was sickly-sweet.

**Author's Note:**

> My [Twitter](https://twitter.com/casper_barnett) is here, where you can see me retweeting art and get updates on the things I'm working on!


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